UK

Brussels, 26 February — As the European Union pushes to align climate ambition with industrial competitiveness, a new report by the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) in collaboration with Deloitte indicates that delays in deploying Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technologies risk both climate failure and deindustrialisation.  

The report, De-Risking CCUS: A One-Stop Shop for Project Bankability, sets out the scale of the challenge facing Europe’s industrial transition and identifies ten priority actions needed to unlock investment and deliver early projects at pace.  

According to the European Commission’s own Industrial Carbon Management Communication, the EU will need to capture around 280 million tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2040, rising to 450 million tonnes by 2050. Yet today, operational CO₂ storage capacity in the EU stands at just 0.185 Mt per year, far short of the 50 Mt/year injection capacity target by 2030 set under the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA).  

The EU has adopted its 2040 climate targets – setting a legal path to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared to 1990 levels – only a couple of weeks ago. To reach these crucial targets, CCUS projects need to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) this year. What happens in 2026 will invariably affect the EU’s decarbonisation path for the next decade.  

“Europe has made important strides in advancing CCUS, and the focus must now be on accelerating delivery,” said Olivia Powis, CEO, CCSA. “If first-mover projects do not reach Final Investment Decision by 2026, the EU risks missing its 2030 and 2040 targets and losing industrial investment to competing regions.”  

While more than 950 CCUS projects are in development globally, uncertainty around regulation, risk allocation and financing continues to undermine the bankability of European projects. Fragmented national policies, the absence of clear risk-sharing frameworks, and delays in transport and storage infrastructure are creating decision paralysis across the value chain.  

The report highlights that CCUS must be treated as a fully integrated system, spanning capture, transport, storage and supporting infrastructure. Failure in any single segment can stall entire projects, discourage private capital and increase costs for industry.  

Insights from more advanced markets underscore the urgency. In the UK, 75% of project developers say they will consider reallocating CCUS investment to other regions if progress stalls, as global competition for clean-tech capital intensifies. The EU cannot afford a similar scenario. Countries that have moved faster have paired public support with clear ownership of early-stage risks, providing invaluable lessons for the EU and its Member States.  

To address these challenges, the report proposes a phased, pragmatic roadmap built around ten “no-regret” actions, aimed at de-risking early projects while laying the foundations for a self-sustaining market. The long-term vision is a European CCUS ecosystem based on dense industrial hubs, cross-border CO₂ corridors, and strong demand-pull mechanisms where private capital, not subsidies, becomes the main driver.  

“Scaling carbon capture and storage in Europe requires coordinated action across policy, finance, infrastructure, and industry. This report, developed with the CCSA, builds on extensive engagement across the value chain to identify the conditions needed to unlock first-of-a-kind projects and accelerate deployment. Together, these initiatives offer practical, evidence-based tools to turn Europe’s climate ambition into investable, competitive industrial solutions”, said Stijn Vercammen, Director, Industrial Transition and Competitiveness, Deloitte.  

The report calls on EU institutions and Member States to act swiftly on funding, regulation and cross-border coordination to ensure that CCUS supports, rather than undermines, Europe’s climate and industrial objectives.  

ENDS  

 

Notes to Editor  
Interview requests: To interview Olivia Powis, CEO, CCSA, please contact francesco.dapolito@ccsassociation.org  

About the CCSA  
CCUS, or Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage, is a key low carbon solution – vital to meeting the EU’s climate targets. CCUS enables industrial decarbonisation as well as the production of clean power, clean products (such as cement and chemicals) and clean hydrogen – which can also be used to decarbonise industry. In addition, CCUS also enables greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere through Direct Air Capture with Storage (DACS) or Bioenergy with CCS (BECCS).  

The CCSA is the trade association accelerating the commercial deployment of CCUS, with offices in Belgium and in the UK. We work with members, governments and other organisations to ensure CCUS is developed and deployed at the pace and scale necessary to meet net zero goals and deliver sustainable growth across regions and nations.  

The CCSA currently has over 120 member companies who are active in exploring and developing different applications of carbon capture and removals, CO2 transportation by pipeline and ship, utilisation, geological storage, and other permanent storage solutions, end-users in the power, industry, waste management, fuels, and hydrogen production sectors, plus supply chain, engineering, construction and management, legal and financial consulting sectors.